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Well, after Paris, my next stop was Rome and it did not disappoint.

Firstly, my accommodations. I did not know which hotel to pick as there were literally hundreds of them in Rome. So, I just randomly picked one, checked the price and made the booking. Little did I know that I ended up booking myself into a 4-star hotel smack in the city centre! Luckily they were having their off-peak promotional prices and only paid 30% of the peak prices. The room was the largest hotel room that I have ever stayed in by European standards. The bathroom itself was as big as my first-year accommodations in Cambridge. The location was excellent as it was within walking distance from almost every major Roman tourist attraction.

Secondly, the timing. I flew into Rome on Tuesday and went to the Vatican on Wednesday morning in time for the Pope’s weekly public appearance. We got there just in time to listen to the ending of the English version but stayed a while to witness the thing in several languages. I was just glad that I brought my zoom lens with me and I got a few shots off. It was literally ‘people mountain people sea’ in St Peter’s Square. There were huge screens set up to project his face and there was a stage set up right at the entrace of the Basilica.

Thirdly, the experience. My dad got his pockets picked right in front of my eyes. I witnessed the entire thing. In fact, I already saw them gypsy girls come in at the metro station. Then, one of them got in between me and my dad on the train and made her move. All I could do was to drag my dad out of there and told him that his pockets have just been picked. He said that he felt someone touching him and he thought the girl was being nice in helping an old man get off the train. Luckily, I had the wits to get him to empty his pockets just before we got into the metro station. All our pockets were empty and we carried everything in a single bag. Like I told my friend – put all the eggs in one basket and protect that basket – was my strategy.

Fourthly, the food. Well, my friend in Rome brought us to a nice place called “Taverna Cestia” for dinner one evening (it is located near the Piramides junction). The food was excellent! I was told that the restaurant was quite famous and it seroved Roman food, not necessarily Italian. We got to try different things and the food was all good. We had asparagus, seafood salad, pizza (and some other bread like thing), lobster linguine, chicken ala roma and proper tiramisu. The waiter gave us a look when we asked if the tiramisu had any alcohol in it – turns out that tiramisu only turned alcoholic in modern times.

All in all, Rome was interesting.

Pics to follow soon.

I have just spent the day with a really good friend of mine, who acted as our tour-guide in Paris. I really appreciate her effort, even though she is feeling a little under the weather. Amongst the many places she brought us to, was this quaint little Parisian restaurant for lunch.

French food has always been good, and this one is no different.

We all had the formulae, which is French for ‘set’ and the food is still good regardless. I had this wonderful starter of cured ham, honey dew, and salad. Ensuite, I had cod that was extremely well done and well presented. My dessert was a cute little chocolate creme thing. Nice.

This place is located very near the Louvre where we were.

Anyway, I want to end this entry by saying that I really appreciate that my friend spending time bringing my family and I around Paris. Although I can half understand some French, I really cannot speak it very well.

So, I really need to find a way to say thank you when I get back home.

Yesterday was a really important day for me – some would say that it was the most important day of my life. I am really lucky to have had all my family and a bunch of good friends with me.

My mother commented that I had a lot of friends – most certainly the largest group of people gathered outside the lawn at that time. I totally appreciate the effort that my friends had made to come see me off for possibly the last time. For some of us, we will probably never see each other again even if we make an effort to keep in touch.

One of my friends, silly and forgetful as she was, actually got me a card but did not actually write anything in it. So, she had to borrow a pen from my supervisor to write her message in it, which turned out to be really verbose and literal. Well, I have come to expect such randomness from my silly friend.

And my supervisor, whom I think is probably the best supervisor I had ever had, was also there to see me off. That was extremely nice of him, since supervisors rarely turn up, and he had a short chat with my family and said glowing things about me. I have come to realise that it is extremely rare for me to find someone who can actually get along with me as a supervisor. So, I have to thank my stars that I was lucky enough to have had one whom I could work with.

Another friend of mine also turned up to take a couple of photos – and his photo was the one that I selected as the image in my previous entry. I wish him all the best in his quest to walk down the same path that I have. It is a long and arduous one but it is well worth it in the end.

Some of my friends are actuallyon the midst of their studies and studying for their exams but still took time out to come see me. I sincerely appreciate them sacrificing their time so that I would not feel so alone. I hope that they will do well in their exams and make something of themselves in the future.

There were also a couple of soon to be done people, who came as well. It is too bad that they would be walking down a white sating instead of scarlet – I prefer the scarlet and so do they! Borrow a scarlet one from another friend after you get out onto the lawn.

Obviously, there were others there whom I did not mention in this post – that does not mean that I don’t appreciate the effort – I would like to thank you all the same for turning up on the biggest day of my life.

Now, one chapter of my life is officially closed. I do not think that there will be any other chapter quite like this one in the future. That said, I am looking forward to tackling the next chapter in life and I sure hope that I would succeed in it.

Signing off from under the English Channel.

Au revoir, mes amis

My favourite part from the whole ceremony:

The person presenting the graduand holds the candidate by his or her right hand and says:

Dignissima domina, Domina Procancellaria et tota Academia praesento vobis hunc virum (hanc mulierem) quem (quam) scio tam moribus quam doctrina esse idoneum (idoneam) ad gradum assequendum (name of degree); idque tibi fide mea praesto totique Academiae.

(Most worthy Vice-Chancellor and the whole University, I present to you this man (this woman) whom I know to be suitable as much by character as by learning to proceed to the degree of (name of degree); for which I pledge my faith to you and to the whole University.)

The graduand’s name is called and they step forward and kneel. Clasping the graduand’s hands, the Vice-Chancellor says:

Auctoritate mihi commissa admitto te ad gradum (name of degree), in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sanctii.

(By the authority committed to me, I admit you to the degree of (name of degree) in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.)

The new graduate then rises, bows to the Vice-Chancellor, and exits through the Doctor’s door of the Senate-House to receive their degree certificate.

If there ever was a mouthful – this would be it. While listening to how the Cameron-Clegg partnership is turning out at No 10, I read that our government has committed to spending RM200 million to ‘Malaysianise’ various software used in the ICT industry. A couple of thoughts popped into my head.

One, how is the money going to be disbursed and which companies will get the contracts to do software localisation. I wonder if this would be a good avenue to push through Open Source Software (OSS) because OSS is inherently easier to modify than proprietary software. We can easily turn the entire user-interface into Malay if we want to.

However, if recent experience at work is any indicator, the effort will be more difficult than we can imagine. There is a lot of difficulty in translating software concepts into Malay due to the nature of the language. The words that we need to use are either very long or we need to use compound words when translating. That screws around with the user-interface that has been designed for English words in mind.

Two, what kinds of software would be consider for localisation. I wonder if this will just be limited to Windows and Office or if this will extend to everything. Or does the government actually want to actively encourage the development of local software indudstry by injecting the money into small local shops. The question then becomes one of re-inventing the wheel.

There is no reason to just be a jaguh kampung because nobody is going to use the software outside of our country. So, it would be difficult to justify to me. Unless of course these companies are just going to focus on developing and maintaining the software for local use and localise the software for outside use. Then, these companies are unlikely to succeed because there is little reason to choose to use them.

Anyway, while I think that it is a good idea for our government to take more interest in our local software industry but I feel that their focus is ill targeted. There would probably be better results if they chose to focus on building real software companies instead of creating a niche localisation industry. There is just too little growth potential for that.

Signing off from Hogwarth’s.

Since I am in KLIA now, and I am now with a new ultra-portable lappy, I got to test out the Internet connections here. Needless to say, the wifi in the restaurants and public areas are insufficient to cope with demand. I could not even get myself an IP address. However, the wifi in the departure gate is another matter entirely and that is where I am writing this now.

All the stewardesses are sitting directly opposite me, getting ready to go onto the plane. Their luggage bags seem to be of the exact same model. Maybe it is something that Emirates gives them. Yes, I like to fly emirates – they have much better service in their economy class than we do on MAS. At least, that has been my personal observation.

So, I will try to update this blog periodically while I am overseas. I have my new 8-hr battery life ultra-portable lappy and it will keep me happy.

I have been reading the issue surrounding the shooting of a local teenager, which resulted in his death in the arms of his friend, by our local police. The story then became extremely convoluted and nobody really knows what the truth but everyone sort of knows what most likely happened.

Regardless of what everyone says, I personally think that the police were wrong.

There are rules and procedures that need to be followed, not just for a police discharging his weapon, but even for a police to take it out of the holster. Police are given the authority to carry deadly firearms but with that authority comes the implicit trust that they will not discharge the weapons unnecessarily at unarmed boys.

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Regardless of what the child may or may not have done, killing him was not the right thing to do. If he tried to run down the policemen as they claimed, the big question then becomes what the police were doing out of their car. Anyone who has watched any cop shows on TV knows that the standard thing to do is to stand behind your car and demand that the suspect step out of the car with his hands in the air, in order to eliminate any potential threat.

I agree that the police have a right to defend themselves and that the right sometimes means that they need to pull out their firearms and shoot someone with deadly force. However, the use of deadly force is rarely required especially in a country like Malaysia where regular civilians are rarely armed with knives, much less guns.

The use of force has to be proportional to the threat – otherwise it is an abuse.